Translation by Yusra Ahmed
(Zaman Al Wasl- Eqtsad)- Many Syrian businessmen and factories' managers and owners have moved to Egypt, especially those who work kids clothing industry, which gained fame for their high quality.
Manufacturers aim to reach to internationally recognized high quality to be able to export the production and widen the market abroad.
Although kids clothing are now manufactured in Egypt and tagged as “made in Egypt”, but they are designed and made by Syrian hands and experts.
It is estimated that 450 Syrian fabric factories in Egypt, all of them aim to cover the local market, and be able to cover markets abroad.
Manufactures of Syrian clothes managed to keep their reputation and transfer all their experience in that field to Egypt.
Azzam al-Dali, fashion designer told Eqtsad that Syria was the second country internationally in producing children clothes after Italy, and these days all experience has been transferred to Egypt, and the next goal would be exporting.
Al-Dali explained that 80% of workforce in factories are Syrians, especially in administration and fashion design.
The fashion designer confirmed that factories are positioned in 5 main areas: Gesr Suez, Ain Shams, al-Abour, 10th of Ramadan, neighborhoods in the city of 6 October near Cairo.
Al-Dali explained that businessmen an manufacturers have chosen Egypt because the government provided them with many facilitations especially in fabric manufacturing, beside the possibility of competition even at the level of small workshops, as they can compete with well known brands.
Sector of children clothes manufacturing had achieved significant progress before the war, and now most of these experience have been moved to Egypt and the products are exported abroad, which find wide market and high demand, because of the good reputation of previous Syrian production.
textile sector in Syria was the second most important source of income for
the Syrian economy, as in 2011, it contributed approximately 12% of the
net domestic product and 63% the industrial sector’s total production, and it accounted for approximately 20% of the labor force.
Syria used to export around $3.3 billion dollars of textile products, such as yarn, fabric, and garments.
After three years after the terrible crisis in Syria, the textile industry was exposed to sabotage and destruction, which led to the closure of many factories.
The economic website “Syria Report” reported on the Public Foundation for Textile Industries that the loss of the public textile sector in Syria reached 17.6 billion Syrian pounds ($135 million) since the outbreak of the conflict thirty months ago. The direct losses include theft and destruction of equipment, which amount to 4.7 billion Syrian pounds ($36 million), while the indirect losses of expected profit amount to 2.1 billion pounds ($16 million). Many of the governmental textile factories stopped their activity totally or partially, including five companies in Aleppo city, the economic capital of the country.
There are no figures available on the losses of private sector textile companies.
The estimated value of the direct damages and losses of the Public Foundation for Textile Industries in 2012 is approximately 6.5 billion pounds ($1 billion) and the losses of Cottons Foundation approximately 21.5 billion pounds ($3.3 billion).
The Ministry of Industry estimates the Public Foundation’s indirect damages at about 6.5 billion pounds ($1 billion) and the Cotton Foundation’s indirect damages at more than one billion pounds. (Eqtsad is one of Zaman Al Wasl's media projects)
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